Monday, October 20, 2014

What About Mail?

When
you travel for a length of time you have to figure out what to do about your
mail. There are a couple different options that I have found:

Have mail held at the post office

Have someone you trust pick up your email

Subscribe to a mail service

Post
Office Hold

If
you are going to be gone for more than 3 days and less than 30, you can contact
the post office to hold your mail. This allows you to leave without
having people know that you aren't home by the fact that your mailbox looks
like a pop fresh biscuit tube.

If
you have a trusted friend of family member that can take care of your mail it
is a good option. You can either use that person as your address or you can
pick up a PO Box. A PO Box is obviously not free but depending on
where you live you can spend less than $100 a year. If you’re trusted one
will allow you can just use their address as your address. This is cheaper as you
most people that care enough to allow you to do this will not charge you and
instead will settle for a souvenir. This option is good for those trips over 30
days and if you don't plan on getting much mail that you need to act on when
you are gone.

Mail
Service

If you are going to be gone for over
30 days and don't have a trusted person, or don't want do inconvenient anyone,
a mail service is an option. This is probably your most expensive option
but there are some good options for the long term traveler. Some will
forward your mail based on where you are going to be at a specific time.
Other services will have scan your mail and give you the option to have it sent
to you or just shredded. The scanning services give you an option of not
falling behind on mail and bills while you are gone. Here are some
options with a disclaimer that I have never used any of them but Earth Class
Mail has been recommended on more than one occasion